Help with tech support for Posterous/Twitter? Or recs for other solutions?

August 3, 2012 10:08 AM

Does anyone have any information about emergency contacts at Posterous (or someone at Twitter who is minding the Posterous store) for an online app problem that is creating a security breach for a class I'm teaching?

Long story short...a course I'm teaching has a semi-online learning format and I've been experimenting with using Posterous during the last year to accept team assignments and give feedback. This allows students to see the comments I'm making on other teams' submissions and that is a GOOD thing. That is necessary to the needs of the class. The blog itself was set up as a private blog and we've not had past problems with that.

A little over two weeks ago, another instructor and I would post comments on submissions and they would disappear within 24 hours or so. Not consistently or across all posts, just some. Occasionally I would have to re-comment on the very same post up to 3-4 times. I've been traveling so at the same time I've been trying to figure out what is happening while also scrounging around for a decent internet connection.

Last night, my co-instructor checked her Posterous profile page based on a tip of given to her by one of the students. It seems that our comments are being moved to random posts at other blogs that we have never visited before. I checked my profile this morning and, yes, that is exactly what is happening. If you look at this picture, you can see that my comments are listed, but they have been moved to other posts at other blogs. This is not only happening to the class blog. I submitted a test comment at a separate PUBLIC blog (the first one there on the list that says "this is a comment" and by this morning it had been moved to a completely different public blog called "Live Streaming New Jersey Devils"...what?)

This is beyond frustrating and I'm trying to find someone, ANYONE, at Posterous who will respond about if and how this can be corrected. They were just sold to Twitter, so it seems as if they might have just abandoned ship over there.

There are 3 weeks left of class. I will probably have to scramble and figure out a way for teams to submit and comment on each others' assignments if Twitter/Posterous doesn't help me fix this. Which, that is the risk you take when experimenting with new tech that is free, I know. But being on road has also been inhibiting my ability to research an alternate, quick solution and I'm frustrated.

posted by jeanmari to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

I pinged them on Twitter to alert them to this thread, though that account hasn't posted in a week or so.
posted by brentajones at 10:25 AM on August 3, 2012

Whois information on technical contact:

Agarwal, Sachin Posterous
2973 16th St. 4th Floor
San
Francisco, California 94110
United States
Telephone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
posted by bleucube at 10:44 AM on August 3, 2012

Thanks, I sent an email into Sachin but no response as of yet. Called the telephone number and got a generic answering machine type message :( Left a message there anyway. Thanks so much for digging up that info.

If anyone you know has a private blog on Posterous, especially one related to business or personal matters, they are probably going to want to shut off the ability for anyone to comment and until this is cleared up.
posted by jeanmari at 10:51 AM on August 3, 2012

I presume you've tried the basic support form with no results? You could try writing their press address as a last resort: [e-mail]. It may well go to a PR firm, but if you're brief and polite it might get forwarded to someone who can help.

A couple people seem to be tweeting about similar issues, so it could well be that their stuff is simply majorly screwed up and there's nothing they can do to support you on an individual level.
posted by zachlipton at 11:48 AM on August 3, 2012

zachlipton, can you link some of the other Twitter accounts besides mine @JMOChicago tweeting about this? I can't location any, but I'm also trying to move stuff off of Posterous and lock stuff down.
posted by jeanmari at 12:06 PM on August 3, 2012

Okay, emailing back and forth with Sachin now. Thanks everyone.
posted by jeanmari at 12:19 PM on August 3, 2012

Garry Tan, one of the cofounders of posterous, has been tweeting as recently as yesterday... but he was involved with Y-Combinator and probably didn't move to twitter. Sachin Agarwal himself actively tweets, and his email address as of a tweet a few minutes ago is [e-mail] and it looks like you tweeted at him and he replied within the hour.
posted by SpecialK at 12:22 PM on August 3, 2012

Thanks, SpecialK, yes, Sachin has replied.

I never received a reply/response from the basic form yesterday, and I moved to posting a comment on different Posterous exec's blogs to try and get their attention. Now I know why I didn't hear back. This comment was originally posted on the general Posterous blog :

(scroll down for the comment, how it ended up on this blog's post? I have no idea.) http://sigmaef500stdgsave.posterous.com/sto-fen-omni-bounce-for-the-sigma-ef-500st-ef

And this one was originally posted on Vincent Chu's personal blog (I was feeling desperate):

(I have no idea how it ended up over here)
http://johnnye-wxdi6.posterous.com/this-is-my-cat-in-the-bathroom-sink

Since comments to a PRIVATE blog are meeting the same fate and ending up being posted in random public blogs, you can see why I'm freaking out a little bit. The only way I'm able to figure out where the comments are going is tracking them in my Posterous profile.

I can't be the only one, but maybe I am and that would bode relatively well for them. Not for me, but so it goes.
posted by jeanmari at 12:59 PM on August 3, 2012

I tweeted one of the guys I sort of know that works there, he said they were looking into it and that the bug should be fixed now.
posted by polexa at 2:32 PM on August 3, 2012

Bug is now fixed, just heard that here as well, and I've sent them URL links to all of the comments scattered from our private blog that were made public...the ones that I know about. The fix didn't re-privatize those comments....they are still out there. Unfortunately.
posted by jeanmari at 2:43 PM on August 3, 2012

(Thanks for reaching out to your acquaintance, btw. Much appreciated.)
posted by jeanmari at 2:48 PM on August 3, 2012